Journeying south from the exotic souks of Marrakech into a controversially contested region where state oppression and violence has featured may engender trepidation. The region is that what was once called ‘Western Sahara’, a name and sovereignty which is still recognised by the United Nations , but is vehemently refuted by the Moroccan government who insist the former country is part of Morocco. On atlases and maps, the country is greyed out which reflects this dispute, its national borders clearly delineated with Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.
Its geographic interest is that it becomes the most western part of the Sahara Desert, where the desert meets the Atlantic Ocean for 1000 kilometres of coastline. The coach journey south eventually follows this coast line, crossing the former national boundary into firstly Laayoune before emerging 500km later at el Dakhla. Driving down such distances encourages a gradual visual absorption of transition, where the arid reddish landscape of Marrakesh becomes the undulating sandy, yellowish hue of desert. Any hope of seeing perpetually rolling dunes is replaced by a reality of vast tracts of stone and rock, with occasional mesas on the horizon, a desert landscape known as Hamada. It is upon this landscape that the Saharawi people long established a rich nomadic lifestyle.
Who are the Saharawi people?
The Sahrawi, or Saharawi, are the people living in the western part of the Sahara desert which includes Western Sahara (claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and mostly controlled by Morocco), other parts of southern Morocco and the extreme southwest of Algeria. As with most peoples living in the Sahara, the Sahrawi culture is mixed. It shows mainly Arab-Berber characteristics, like the privileged position of women, as well as characteristics common to ethnic groups of the Sahel. Sahrawis are composed of many tribes and are largely speakers of the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic, and some of them still speak Berber in both of Morocco’s disputed and non-disputed territories. The Arabic word Sahrawi literally means “Inhabitant of the desert”.
This was taken from, and more information can be found at, https://www.atlasofhumanity.com/sahrawi
Marrakech to Laayoune
The 15 hour journey started at 6am at Marrakech, and weaved its way south via towns and cities in Morocco before issuing into vastly more empty regions of desert. The soporific experience of travel was punctuated by memorable sights of flowing landscape outside, mostly viewed through the opaque lens of a coach window, as towns, humanity and countryside merged into real and hallucinogenic experience. The rhythm of travel moulded the long hours into fragmented memory; foundation stones for the external changes in region and lifestyle. The series of images below catches something of that journey.
Laayoune
Laayoune was formed in 1938 by a Spanish colonialist, and in 1958 became the administrative capital of the Spanish Sahara. On my first day I became overwhelmed with the quality of light. Ordinary, everyday things such as doors, gates and street art became transformed into something else. Experiencing this abundance of colour and design is a normal response for me to time in Morocco; for the first day or two the mundane becomes something else and I am entranced by it, and I can do little but respond to it.
The first 2 galleries explore similar material; the first I have tried to capture the street art which resembles unfinished paintings. There is frequently a streak of paint which drips down through the remainder of the design which lends a tragedy, or a vibrancy, to the image. Also the melange of colours and designs, the mixture of paint, colour and architectural designs, for me create rich tapestries.
The second gallery I respond to a wider environmental subject matter, often incorporating form with the colour and design of the image.
One of my goals of the visit is to try to capture remnants or figments of the culture of the Saharawis however I can. Laayoune has a rich history of Saharawi resistance and I wonder how much of the street art is protest and resistance even 50 years after Morocco annexation. Some 80% of former Western Sahara is occupied, and the remaining 20% Freezone exists beyond the 2700 kilometre mud wall, or berm, one of the most heavily land-mined regions in the world as it butts up to the Algerian border. The annexation occured mostly by a peaceful incursion of over 200,00 thousands Moroccans, who had been gathered just inside the Moroccan side of the Western Sahara border. Called ‘the Green March’, flag wielding Moroccans and their families poured into
Smara
